Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Rabbi Daniel Lapin is a radio talk-show host and author. He cofounded Pacific Jewish Center in Los Angeles with media personality Michael Medved and was named one of "The Top 50 Rabbis in America" by Newsweek. Rabbi Lapin is a headline speaker for hundreds of synagogues, churches, companies, and organizations. His Torah teaching programs reach over a hundred thousand followers worldwide. Rabbi Lapin lives with his family on an island near Seattle.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Praise for the First Edition of Thou Shall Prosper

"Rabbi Daniel Lapin's wisdom has helped untold numbers of people, including me, grow in our business, family, and spiritual lives. In Thou Shall Prosper, Rabbi Lapin has done it again. This book tells it like it is in a helpful, honest, hopeful, informative way. He offers valid, useful information based on ancient wisdom and modern experience."―Zig Ziglar, author and motivational teacher

"Thou Shall Prosper is a passionate, occasionally hortatory avowal and practical road map to the making of 'dough' and the life-affirming consequences of the honest pursuit of profit. An unabashed manifesto for the twenty-first century, it seeks to steer the reader toward a guilt-free appreciation of wealth accumulation."―The Jewish Press

"No matter how successful or sophisticated you may be, this remarkable work will enrich your understanding of the important, exciting process of building wealth."―Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio host and author of Right Turns

"In this highly insightful and controversial new book, Rabbi Lapin unearths the golden nuggets of Jewish business genius. By emphasizing the unique talents of the Jewish way of life, Rabbi Lapin demonstrates how Judaism's spiritual regimen can be translated into tangible material rewards, with the bottom line being directly affected. A thoroughly engaging, enriching, and thought-provoking book."―Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of Kosher Sex and Judaism for Everyone

"I really enjoyed this book, and I heartily recommend it to people of all faiths."―The Late Honorable Jack Kemp

Aus dem Klappentext

"Life is business, and business is life.
Learn one, and you will have also learned the other."

In the few years since the first edition of Thou Shall Prosper was published, much has changed from both an economic and financial standpoint. But the ups and downs we've experienced have helped prove Rabbi Daniel Lapin's point that the more things change, the more we need to depend upon things that never do.

There's no better source for both practical and spiritual financial wisdom than the time-tested knowledge found in the ancient Jewish faith and culture. Now, with the Second Edition of Thou Shall Prosper, Rabbi Lapin returns to provide a clear picture of how following an unwavering economic and philosophic vision of business and money―based on the established principles of Jewish tradition―can increase your potential for creating wealth.

While unprecedented events have changed the world we live in, the ten fundamental "commandments" outlined throughout these pages, which relate to both business and money, are as relevant as ever. By blending contemporary business stories and his own business experiences with the wisdom of the Torah and Talmudic prescriptions, Rabbi Lapin skillfully explains the essence of each commandment―which include Believe in the Dignity and Morality of Business, Do Not Pursue Perfection, and Know Your Money―and shows you how to use them to prosper financially.

Along the way, Rabbi Lapin also highlights new examples that will help you excel during difficult economic times and addresses important concepts such as "being in business for yourself"; avoiding the trappings of a "wage slave"; changing with the times; learning to become a leader; and much more. So that you may apply each principle to your life, Rabbi Lapin suggests engaging and accessible action steps to start you immediately on the path to prosperity.

With the Second Edition of Thou Shall Prosper as your guide, you'll quickly discover the powerful wealth-producing principles that lie at the root of Jewish success―and learn how to apply them to your own endeavors. No matter what your faith or background, the insights found here will put you in a better position not only to maximize your potential, but also help those around you.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Thou Shall Prosper

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

Believe in the Dignity and Morality of Business

Making money is much harder if, deep down, you suspect it to be a morally reprehensible activity.

If there is one Jewish attribute more directly responsible for Jewish success in business than any other, it is this one: Jewish tradition views a person's quest for profit and wealth to be inherently moral. How could it be otherwise? As I explained in the Introduction, who I am and how I earn my living are inextricably bound together. If your chosen means of contributing to the world, and incidentally providing for your needs and desires, is immoral, then you must stop doing it because it will inevitably taint your entire existence. If your life is bifurcated into the work arena and the social arena with the two never meeting, not even in your own mind, then that is one of the first repair jobs you should undertake. Step one in the process of increasing your income is to begin wrapping yourself around these two related notions: (1) you are in business, and (2) the occupation of business is moral, noble, and worthy.

As you will see, that view of business is not universally shared. Generally speaking, media, entertainment, and public education in the United States all subtly denigrate business. What is more, government is often complicit in this slander of business. Almost without fail, in many countries, when government policies fail to deliver on their promises, politicians denounce the greed of Wall Street. Whenever the ghost of unintended consequences strikes again and well-intentioned but badly conceived state programs erode the economy, political leaders trip over one another in their eagerness to blame business.

In truth, it is for government employees that things just get better and better. State and local government workers are paid an average of $25.30 an hour, which is 33 percent higher than the private sector's $19, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Throw in pensions and other benefits and the gap widens to 42 percent. By way of example, employees of New York City have enjoyed raises of 63 percent since 2000 to an average of $107,000 a year. In California, prison guards can sock away $300,000 a year with overtime pay. It might make more sense to point to the greed of government employees as the cause of economic stress. But pundits and politicians prefer to demonize business. They suggest that government and nonprofit organizations do more for poor people than the private sector does and that business professionals need to be restrained from committing crimes in their single-minded pursuit of profit. It is not surprising that many other large groups in the United States have come to believe the same. This campaign has been so pervasive that everyone has inevitably been conditioned to believe it, at least to some extent. As we shall soon come to see, nothing could be further from the truth. The greedy or rapacious business professional is soon recognized for the thug he is and is usually weeded out by the simple process of nobody wanting to deal with him; not as supplier, customer, or employee. Believing that making money is a selfish activity will undermine anyone's chances of success.

FEEL VIRTUOUS, GROW WEALTHY

Most people understand that they enjoy greater success when they feel good about their activities. For example, in martial conflict, the defender's advantage is acknowledged by most military experts to be as much as five to one. This means that the defender's conviction of being right is enough to require a five-to-one superiority on the part of the invader in order for the attack to stand a good chance of success. That is because people tend to feel morally justified in defending their homes and families, whereas an attacker often doubts the righteousness of the cause. It follows that you would have vast additional power to inject into your enterprise if you could simply develop a deep conviction of its intrinsic morality.

This is how people are created. For better or worse, humans are holistic. Even the human body does best when its spiritual and physical sides are synchronized. Consider the role of placebos in modern medicine. Placebos and their strange effect have been known since the late eighteenth century. Dr. Andrew Newberg, a radiologist and psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, describes a cancer patient whose tumors shrank when he was given an experimental drug, grew back when he learned that the drug was ineffective, and shrank again when his doctor administered pure water but told him it was a more powerful version of the medication that does work. Drugs are one vital element of medicine; the patient's mind is the second. Why would a placebo have any therapeutic impact at all? People's bodies perform better when their brains and souls are on board with the program. This is why most people choose doctors in whom they have confidence. A patient's recovery is directly linked to how much confidence that patient has in his or her medical advisers. It is almost as if your body knows what is in your mind and responds accordingly. Helping your mind to know and believe that what you do professionally is good, noble, and worthwhile in itself helps to fuel your energies and propel your efforts.

If you feel really good about your profession, you sweep others along with you on the waves of your enthusiasm for what you do. You will become known for telling entertaining accounts of amusing incidents in your professional life. Stories about events in your business day can inspire others, and they will be moved by poignant interactions you relate. These natural and positive aspects of your public persona flow inevitably from feeling pride and passion for your work.

You see, increasing your ability to create wealth is not just a matter of knowing a technology. It is not just a matter of knowing what kind of investments to seek or knowing how to write a resume. Having additional money in your pocket, real spendable money, is not the same as having a pen or a cigar lighter in your pocket. A substantial and meaningful increase in the amount of money you own changes you. You become a slightly different person, and people notice the change. Now if extra money makes a new person of you, it easily follows that making a new person of you is a step on the road to having more money.

This is what it might look like expressed as a mathematical equation:

Old you + More money = New you Now, subtracting "Old you" from both sides of the equation (remember that whatever you do to one side of the equal sign you must also do to the other), we have

More money = New you - Old you

In other words, in order to acquire more money, you need to work on far more than merely learning new skills. You have to work on changing yourself. It may not be easy, but it can certainly be done, and it works.

As a rabbi, I have always seen the Torah as a comprehensive guide to how the world really works. For instance, I expect no conflict between Torah wisdom and chemistry, and I find none. Both, after all, are instruments that explain how the world works, each from its own perspective. Thus chemistry might remind me that just as two atoms of...